The L’Honey Program
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Products
Honey - $8.50
12 oz glass hex jar
Blackberry/Honey Jam - $6.00
8 oz
all prices are a suggested donation
St. Leo YouTube Paint Bee Hives – Improving Habitat with Art!
Spring is in the air and our honeybees are excited about this season of hope renewed! I think we could all use a little sunshine and spring flowers, and our bees REALLY LIKE that idea.
The honeybees will get busy this spring as quick as they can, gathering pollen and nectar to feed their young. Every drop of nectar or gain of pollen is precious to a honeybee colony trying to raise their young. In the hustle-n-bushel of spring foraging, there are many times when tired worker bees end up returning to the wrong hive in the apiary. This is because so many times, the hives look alike! We all can relate to making mistakes after a long hard day at work, right??!!
So, to help the bees out and remedy this tired worker bee problem, our youth have come to the rescue!!! Why not paint all the hives various designs and colors to they will be easier for a tired, home-bound honeybee worker to identify their home for a safe return with the “groceries”! Kristin and the youth group have been painting our hives really cool designs and colors that will be used in the apiaries during coming weeks and months!
Check out some of the cool pictures of our youth at work, helping out Sister Bee! What a fun way to help build better habitat for our friends the Honey Bees.
Beekeeping: L’Honey Update of Spring 2022!
2022 Spring Equinox has arrived and it finds our apiaries in pretty good shape considering some winter losses. We currently maintain 6 apiaries with 27 hives to start off the spring beekeeping season. We have worked hard throughout the fall and winter seasons to keep our bees as healthy as possible. With the spring season being predicted as cooler than with averages temperatures, I hope to see a slow but predictable growth in bee population and an overall increase in our number of beehives, going into summer! We will be adding some Oregon Queens into our apiaries around early to mid-May to improve diversity.
The Varroa Mite will continue to be a pest that needs to be managed. Brood inspection and the testing for and treatment of Varroa mites will be taking places over the next 2-3 months.
Our focus for 2022 continues to be the championing of Care for Creation. Addressing the Climate Crisis MUST BE a primary focus for us all!!! If you have any ideas on how we can do more to help the Planet with our beekeeping program, please let me know! Moreover, I am happy to me with any school or community group interested in honeybee or want to be more involved with the Care.
The steps to a healthy planet that has sustains diversity and life!
- Engage in sustained and productive work to preserve and/or heal your local ecosystems and the life it contains.
- Create that relationship with the natural world and fall in love with Mother Nature -REAL, NOT VIRTUAL
- Support and vote for ONLY candidates that will place caring for Creation and promoting renewable energy at TOP Priority
- Consume less and live simply
- As much as possible AVOID the use of plastics and call for alternatives
- Be loving and kind to all living creatures and give all glory to God.
Tahoma Catholic Relief Services & St. Leo Youth "Bean Soup Project"
The YOUTH Bean Soup Project is moving a head with 3 bean recipes ready to go! We will be presenting the program and our sample products to Our St. Leo Youth Group in the next month or so. If there is energy from the youth group to work on this project, we will go into productions with our products ready for sale in the Easter Season!!!
For more information on this effort contact Rick at: larchelhoneybeekeeping@gmail.com.
Volunteer Opportunities
L’Honey is looking for volunteers interested in sustainability and bees:
- Visits to our bee yard to learn about the bees and help assist in their care
- Hive maintenance
- Candle, soap and hand balm making
- Host an educational opportunity and schools and other civic institutions
- Promote product sales
- Help with educational presentations
Bee Healthy Garden Initiative 2022
As we did last year, we are encouraging gardening at you home, school and community. Gardening and caring for living things is the best way to form relationships with the natural world and to foster love and compassion for Creation. We are tasks to Till and to Keep Creation (Gen:2-15). Our purpose in Creation is to Love each other, care for Creation and to give all glory to God alone.
Let’s take proactive steps to rediscover our right relationship with the natural world. One simple start to this could be gardening!!!!
If you want to start a garden or enhance your current endeavors, consider getting seed and plants from the St. Leo Bee-Healthy Initiative.
Here is how:
- Browse through the Territorial Seed Company catalogue and identify the seeds you would like – (https://territorialseed.com/pages/catalog-digital-edition)
- Note the name, item # and quantity of your seed
- Contact Rick Samyn at: larchelhoneybeekeeping@gmail.com and relay seed information, your name, contact info and address to Rick
- Rick will order your seeds and get them to you
- Also, we will have after mass plant giveaways this spring at both Sacred Heart and St. Leo’s. Dates: Sundays – April 24th, May 8th May 22nd, May 29th, June 12th & June 26th.
- Get outside, plant, garden & fall in love with Creation. Our future depends on it!!!
If you have any questions, please contact Rick Samyn at: (253) 229-4114 or larchelhoneybeekeeping@gmail.com
Rick: 253 229-4114 or larchelhoneybeekeeping@gmail.com
Educational Partnerships
The L’Honey Beekeeper works with educators and student groups in the promotion of sustainable beekeeping and caring for our environment. For more information on the L’Honey Program please contact Rick Samyn at 253.229-4114 or larchelhoneybeekeeping@gmail.com